Frederick Douglass, the Accurate "Without Struggle/No Freedom" Quote

A research memo by Chip Berlet

This is probably the most famous quote by abolitionist orator Frederick
Douglass:

"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to
favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation…want crops without plowing up
the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the
ocean without the awful roar of its many waters…. Power concedes nothing
without a demand. It never did and it never will."

--Frederick Douglass
"The Significance of Emancipation in the West Indies."
Speech, Canandaigua, New York, August 3, 1857

Many versions in print and online use the word "deprecate" but in the pamphlet edited by
Douglass himself in 1857 (the last version of this text to appear in print under his stewardship) Douglass uses the word "depreciate."

There are many versions of this Frederick Douglass quote circulating on
the web, with conflicts over the accurate text and date. I did some library
research and found the latest {print} scholarship has the full quote in
context as follows:

"Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history
of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to
her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has
been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting
all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there
is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom
and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up
the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the
ocean without the awful roar of its many waters."

"This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and
it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes
nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just
what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact
measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these
will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with
both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom
they oppress. In the light of these ideas, Negroes will be hunted at the
North, and held and flogged at the South so long as they submit to those
devilish outrages, and make no resistance, either moral or physical. Men
may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must certainly pay
for all they get. If we ever get free from the oppressions and wrongs heaped
upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering,
by sacrifice, and if needs be, by our lives and the lives of others."

--Frederick Douglass, 1857

Source: Douglass, Frederick. [1857] (1985). "The Significance of Emancipation
in the West Indies." Speech, Canandaigua, New York, August 3, 1857; collected
in pamphlet by author. In The Frederick Douglass Papers. Series
One: Speeches, Debates, and Interviews. Volume 3: 1855-63. Edited by John
W. Blassingame. New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 204.

There apparently was an earlier version of this quote in an 1849 letter
by Douglass:

"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to
favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without
plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They
want the oceanwithout the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle
may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral
and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without
demand. It never did and it never will."

Source: Douglass, Frederick. [1849] (1991) Letter to an abolitionist associate.
In Organizing For Social Change: A Mandate For Activity In The 1990s.
Edited by K. Bobo, J. Kendall, and S. Max. Washington, D.C.: Seven Locks
Press.

Many versions of these quotes use the word "deprecate" but clearly Douglass uses the word "depreciate," as in 'lower the value of.'

The full title of the pamphlet produced by Douglass is: "Two Speeches,
By Frederick Douglass: One on West India Emancipation, Delivered at Canandaigua,
Aug. 4th, and the Other on the Dred Scott Decision, Delivered in New York,
on the Occasion of the Anniversary of the American Abolition Society, May,
1857." It was published in Rochester, New York in 1857.

Note that Douglass himself later misdated this speech as being on August
4, 1857, using that date for his pamphlet reprint. That incorrect date
is cited in Foner, Life and Writings, 2: 426-39.

In another section of the speech, Douglass complained that in America
the great question always seems to be "will it pay?" Quoting from Revelation
14:6, Douglass admonishes:

"…if such a people as ours had heard the beloved disciple of the Lord,
exclaiming in the rapture of the apocalyptic vision, "And I saw another
angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach
to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, kindred, tongue,
and people;" they, instead of answering, Amen Glory to God in the Highest,
would have responded,--but brother John, will it pay? Can money
be made out of it? Will it make the rich richer, and the strong stronger?
How will it effect property? In the eyes of such people, there is no God
but wealth; no right and wrong but profit and loss….[Our] national morality
and religion have reached a depth of baseness than which there is no lower
deep."

Democracy is not a specific set of institutions but a process that requires dissent.
- - -
Democracy is a process that assumes the majority of people,
over time, given enough accurate information,
the ability to participate in a free and open public debate,
and to vote without intimidation,
reach constructive decisions that benefit the whole of society, and
preserve liberty, protect our freedoms, extend equality,
and thus defend democracy itself.

_________________________

_________________________

Democracy is not a specific set of institutions but a process that requires dissent.
- - -
Democracy is a process that assumes the majority of people,
over time, given enough accurate information,
the ability to participate in a free and open public debate,
and to vote without intimidation,
reach constructive decisions that benefit the whole of society, and
preserve liberty, protect our freedoms, extend equality,
and thus defend democracy itself.